According to PR Officer Kirk Ricks, a handful of people who had costumes and wanted “to do something better than just showing up at conventions” started the nonprofit, whose acronym stands for Heroes Engaging Real Organizations in Charity, Incorporated.

“Everything that we do is volunteer,” says Ricks. “No one gets paid for this.” The elaborate costumes are paid for by the volunteers who are part of the group.

In one example of their charity activities, H.E.R.O.I.C., Inc. worked with the Make-A-Wish foundation when one child requested that Iron Man fly him to Disneyland. Robert Downey Jr. was unavailable, so the heroes stepped in.

“We had all of the Avengers there except for the Hulk,” says Ricks.

The Avengers and Loki stormed into the room. The child was given a Hulk costume and the group took photos with him. Then Loki kidnapped mom, and her son got to rescue her. The family was given tickets to Disneyland and the boy was named an honorary Avenger.

The heroes have also worked with Toys for Tots and done hospital visits. They have a wide range of characters available for charity work including video game characters and princesses.

The H.E.R.O.I.C., Inc. FanX booth will feature comic books and figurines as part of a raffle. They also have “helping hands” that they will paste to the back wall of the booth for visitors that make donations.